Steve Nix: I’ve no idea when Rage or Doom 4 will be out

id Software’s director of business development Steve Nix has no idea when the legendary developer’s hotly-anticipated first-person shooters Rage and Doom 4 will be out, he’s told VideoGamer.com.

Details on both games are scarce. In August 2007 id unveiled Rage at its annual LAN-fest QuakeCon with an astonishing trailer that blended traditional FPS action with post-apocalyptic Mad Max-style driving. At E3 last year id’s John Carmack took to the stage to confirm EA as publishing partner and the PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac as platforms. No release date has so far been offered by the developer.

Doom 4 details are even thinner on the ground. In May 2008 id announced it had begun production on the game via a press release that also revealed it was looking to hire talent to work on the game. At QuakeCon later that year id confirmed Doom 4 was to be the next project that the company tackles once it’s done with Rage.

The fact that Rage didn’t show up at this year’s E3 supports the widely-held belief that it won’t be released in 2009. Our best guess is the second half of 2010.

When asked for an update on both games, Nix told VideoGamer.com: “They’re id titles. They’re in development. It means we develop the technology while we develop the game. So I don’t even know when Rage or Doom 4 are coming out.

“You’ve seen the screenshots and the video (of Rage). The game looks fantastic. We expect it to be one of the best-looking games that ships, but we’re really not saying much about that right now.”

Both games are being developed using id Tech 5, a game engine Nix described as a “breakthrough”.

He said: “John (Carmack, id co-founder and chief architect behind the engine) has, throughout the years, proven that he can come up with breakthroughs again and again, and we think with id Tech 5 he really has done it again. Getting rid of texture limitations is a huge thing. It’s been a massive problem in game development for years.

“The normal process is you develop a game and then everyone is over budget on their memory allocation so you spend the last half of the game development ripping all the stuff that makes the game look great out so you can ship. With id Tech 5 that’s not a concern. You can just make the game look as beautiful as you want to up until the point where you say, all right we’re done, it looks great let’s go ahead and ship it. It hugely frees up game development.”

Are you looking forward to Rage and Doom 4? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.